Fallibilism
Fallibilism is the view that human knowledge lacks a secure and an infallible foundation. Fallibilism is associated in particular with American scientist and philosopher Charles S. Peirce (1839–1914) and Austrian-born philosopher Karl Popper (1902–1994). In its most comprehensive form the fallibilist maintains that people cannot know anything with certainty. In its more restricted forms uncertainty is attributed to a particular domain of beliefs, such as empirical or religious beliefs. What separates fallibilists from others is the confidence each gives to epistemological success in general or within a particular domain. Participants within the science/religion discussion quite frequently affirm fallibilism. Its merit seems to be that it opens up possibilities for a dialogue on more even terms than foundationalism does.
See also FALSIFIABILITY; POSTFOUNDATIONALISM
Bibliography
Peirce, Charles S. Collected Papers, eds. Charles Hartshorne, Paul Weiss, and Arthur W. Burks. Cambridge, Mass.: Belknap Press, 1931–1958.
Popper, Karl. Conjectures and Refutations: The Growth of Scientific Knowledge. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1963.
Van Huyssteen, J. Wentzel. The Shaping of Rationality: Toward Interdisciplinarity in Theology and Science. Grand Rapids, Mich.: Eerdmans, 1999.
MIKAEL STENMARK